Lean On Me
by Amarelle
Summary: An unexpected encounter at a college party leads to a strange relationship with one of the most annoyingly persistent girls Inuyasha has ever met. Eventually, he starts to realize that sometimes it's okay to need someone.


"Come ooon, Yash! It won't be that bad! You haven't been to a rager in forever." Miroku pleaded with his friend as they sat in their dorm room, eating cold pizza and playing video games. "In fact, I don't even remember the last time I saw you drunk."

"That's because I need a tank and a half to get drunk, Roku, and for the last time, no. By the way, I just sniped you." Miroku cursed and grabbed at his forgotten controller, temporarily distracted. Inuyasha just smiled and took a bite out of his pizza. Visibly frustrated, Miroku gave up, dropping his controller, and turned to his friend.

"Seriously though, man, loosen up. I know it's tough for you, being a scholarship student and-" he paused, unsure how to phrase his thoughts, "-everything, but just give this a chance. As one of your closest and only friends, I genuinely want you to just chill for a night. Hot ladies, cold beer... what more could you ask for?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, grinning playfully. "I could think of a few things."

Miroku laughed at his friend, but refused to relinquish the subject. "You're coming with me, whether you like it or not. It's a Thursday night, you have no classes tomorrow, what the hell could go wrong? Please, buddy. Do it for me."

Finally, Inuyasha caved. "Fine, but don't even think about pulling your dumb puppy eyed look on me. And don't expect me to do any stupid... body shots or something."

His roommate whooped and punched the air, jumping up and abandoning his pizza to rifle through Inuyasha's closet. "Well, I guess I'll have to find you something acceptable to wear, huh?"

Inuyasha scowled and chucked the controller at his roommate. "What the hell is wrong with my clothes, you ass?!"

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

Three hours later, Inuyasha found himself in the middle of a crowd of drunk, horny college kids. Inuyasha peeled a girl who looked like she was about to puke off his arm and grimaced. "I really need a drink..." he muttered to himself.

Sitting on the stairs and nursing what might have been his twentieth red solo cup of whiskey, Inuyasha stared at the mosh pit below him that was full of sloppy, grinding coeds. There was no way people considered this shit fun_._ A giggling couple stumbled up the stairs next to him, arms and legs and clothing flying everywhere. Inuyasha's canine ears flicked in irritation as he felt something land on his head. He plucked it off and immediately froze, staring at it in horror.

It was a pair of panties. He flicked it away hurriedly and contemplated another drink.

A few minutes later, a heavyset blond boy with a crew cut bumped past him as he was hurrying down the stairs and turned to him, face red from alcohol-induced rage. "Hey punk, who do you think you are?" He noticed Inuyasha's downy white ears and a malicious smirk crept over his face. "A hanyou sitting on his lonely ass... why'd you even bother coming here, dude? You wanted to feel normal?"

Inuyasha didn't answer, merely staring into the burnt sienna at the bottom of his cup, even as he felt the anger building up inside him. In this day and age, even though most types of discrimination against hanyous were illegal, many people were still uncomfortable with him. Taunts and teasing about his heritage were standard fare for him, but he had developed a thick skin by the time high school rolled around. He still got suspicious glares as he walked down the street with his head uncovered, and he had taken to wearing beanies in public most of the time.

_Damn, Miroku pulled me out the door so fast, I forgot to pick my hat up_, Inuyasha thought morosely as he ignored the vicious rants of the boy towering above him. _Hopefully, I can slip out of here soon and get back to my room. As soon as this asshole shuts up..._

"...listening to me, half-breed? What a mutt..." The boy who had been bothering him had finally lost interest and stumbled down the steps. _And not a moment too soon_, Inuyasha inwardly grinned as he attempted to rise to his feet. The moment he rose, his head spun wildly and he fell back down onto the stairs, trying to get his eyes to work properly.

_Fuuuuck, I'm actually drunk. This is embarrassing, considering I told Miroku earlier I was practically immune to alcohol..._ Inuyasha thought quickly. He wanted to get the hell out of here, but he also felt like the walls and the floor had switched places. _I'll just sit down here and wait until my brain cooperates with my feet._

Suddenly, a glass of water was thrust into his frame of view. He followed the arm it belonged to and found a girl's face beaming up at him.

At his confused glance, she gestured to the water. "Looked like you could use something non-alcoholic," she grinned as he cautiously took the water. "Wanna talk about it?"

Inuyasha sipped the cool water, grateful for the refreshing liquid, but gave the girl a glare. "Talk about what?" he asked warily, suddenly aware that his words were slurred and sounded all mushy.

She just smiled again and perched below him on the stairs, looking up into his face."Anything, really. You looked like you could use some good conversation." The hanyou only shook his head, refusing to make eye contact.

_I'll just look at her hair- it's kind of pretty, all raven and wavy and tousled... no! Look at her shirt, you idiot- fuck, her boobs are there! Argh, they're nice too... just stare at her feet until she goes away._

"Or you could just stare at my boobs," the girl laughed as Inuyasha felt his face burning up. "Kidding, but seriously, you look like you need to get out of here and you don't even know where the door is. Let me walk you out, at least." She grabbed his arm and pulled him up, but he almost immediately toppled over onto her, forcing her to hold him up. Her face was buried in the crook of his neck as she struggled to get his arm around her.

"Whoosh! You're freaking heavy, you know that? Hey, since we're practically at second base right now, maybe I should give you my name," she teased. "It's Kagome. Kagome Higurashi. You can walk, right? I'll help you down the stairs."

Inuyasha stared at his feet, concentrating very hard on making sure they landed on each step properly. "Nnnmmm...N'yash..uh," he muttered, very aware that he sounded like an idiot. He was also acutely aware that his arm was wrapped around a cute girl. He stared at his feet even harder, willing them not to trip up.

"Sorry, I didn't really get that. Yash? Was that it?" Kagome asked as they finally exited the house, leaving the sound of muffled bass behind them. Inuyasha nodded, although it was more of a head flop, and Kagome grinned up at him.

"Well, Yash, do you want to tell me where your dorm is? Or, do you maybe want to hang out for a bit? Grab some ice cream or something to sober you up?"

Inuyasha stared at the girl below him. The crisp, fresh air of fall sharpened his senses and he was considerably more sober, already. His higher brain functions began to work again as he tried to comprehend the fact that there was a girl (she was even cuter framed by the soft moonlight) underneath his arm, asking him to get ice cream with her (even though he was almost certain that ice cream did absolutely nothing to sober a person up).

Oh... she was still waiting for his answer.

"Uhh, yes," he stuttered. "Ice cream? Y-yeah." Mentally cringing, he waited for her to realize that she had snagged a giant dork as well as a social outcast.

_Smooth, Inuyasha..._ It wasn't that he had absolutely no experience with female attention. There were always girls intrigued by his brooding, loner persona and the fact that he was a hanyou. He was forbidden fruit, and with his exotic looks and rough attitude, he'd seen a few girls practically drool over him. Most of them were even up for a fuck or two, and he had no complaints with the fact that he'd never seen those girls again.

But having this tiny little slip of a girl looking at him so beseechingly with her pretty blue eyes... Inuyasha was at a loss for words. He shifted nervously, still feeling the effects of alcohol clouding his mind.

"Great!" she chirped, dragging him along. "There's an ice cream parlor around here open all night."

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

And that's how Inuyasha found himself sitting on the curb next to the bubbliest person he'd ever met at 3 in the morning, eating vanilla ice cream and looking at the stars. The "parlor" had turned out to be a tiny stall right outside the campus. The fact that it even stayed open this late was a miracle, but he assumed that drunk college kids stumbling across it at all hours of the morning contributed to much of the stall's earnings.

"So you're a scholarship student? Wow, that's amazing! That's no joke, getting a full ride to our school." Kagome gushed excitedly as Inuyasha briefly pondered the insane hangover he already knew was going to befall him tomorrow- no, later today, actually. He sighed internally. How had she managed to glean all this information out of him anyway?

_I really gotta stop talking soon or I'll be spilling my guts like some kind of fuckin' pansy. Actually, it's too late for that._ He bit into his cone and made a "hmm"ing sound, hoping the mouthful of ice cream would serve as an excuse for his lack of conversation. Luckily, Kagome didn't seem to mind. She leaned back and looked up at the sky as Inuyasha watched her out of the corner of his eye. He was struck by the vision of her with her eyes full of stars and her mouth full of mint chocolate chip and rainbow sprinkles. Something strange welled up within him as he watched the dim light of the moon shining in her hair.

Maybe it was the way she tilted her head back on her shoulders to look at him with those wide, trusting eyes, totally comfortable with a strange hanyou she'd just met at a party. Maybe it was just the lingering effects of the alcohol. Either way, Inuyasha truly felt content for the first time in years. For a brief, silent moment, he let every wall he had built in his long and lonely life crumble. He let every harsh, cynical thought seep out through his pores. He lost himself in Kagome's sweet smell, in the dimple on her left cheek, in the sparkle of her deep blue eyes. He inhaled... and then he let it go.

He stood up abruptly, brushing off his pants and steeling his facade once more. Kagome looked up at him in confusion, still finishing off her cone. Inuyasha refused to make eye contact, instead shoving his hands into his pockets and looking up and down the street. "I'm...done," he explained, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. "So... I guess I'm just gonna go. Nice to meet you."

Her face fell, mirroring her disappointment, and Inuyasha was startled at the sudden wave of longing and guilt that hit him. He wanted to stay, he realized. More than anything. But his stubborn, guarded heart still held him back, whispered his self-doubts back into his ear, and he made to turn around again.

"W-wait!" Kagome cried out. "Could you... at least give me your number? Please?" She looked him in the eye, even with an obvious blush on her face, and Inuyasha felt a tinge of shame that this tiny little thing who couldn't be more than half his size was still braver than he thought he could ever be. Without thinking, he nodded, struck dumb that there was a girl standing right in front of him who was actually interested in him. In him, not his ears or his exoticness or a way to rebel against her parents.

_Well, you don't know that, actually. Let's not jump to conclusions just because she genuinely seems like a wonderful, sweet person that you'd totally want to settle down with and - Damn it, stop!_

He snapped out of his reverie when she handed him her phone and looked at him with those damnable eyes again. Silently, he tapped in the digits, typing "Inuyasha" in as his first name. His fingers hesitated as he stared at the last name field, wondering whether or not he should leave it blank. After a second, he returned the phone to Kagome, trying not to look at her beaming face.

"Just Inuyasha, no last name? Mysterious, aren't we?" She waggled her eyebrows at him as she looked through his contact info. Inuyasha just scoffed and looked away, folding his arms and trying not to look guilty. Immediately, Kagome giggled.

"it's okay, you don't have to tell me. I can tell from your ears flicking all over the place that you're uncomfortable," she said, watching the top of his head bemusedly. Immediately, he froze, embarrassed that she'd noticed the trait he'd often been teased for throughout his childhood. Discomfort immediately restored his guard, and he turned around abruptly, hiding his face.

"I'm...gonna go home," he muttered. "I live this way." Even with his back turned, he thought he could feel palpable disappointment emanating from Kagome, but he shook it off as wishful thinking, willing one foot in front of the other.

_Who cares if you're rude? You'll never see her again anyway. It's probably better this way for both of us._

He had almost convinced himself too, until his sharp hearing picked up on Kagome's crestfallen voice whispering "Bye, Yash..." as he walked further away. Immediately, something tugged at his heartstrings so painfully he paused, almost turning around with the desperate need to comfort her. But after a few seconds, sheer stubbornness spurred his feet into motion once again and he pressed on, refusing to look back, but giving into the desire to whisper back under his breath.

"Bye, Kagome."


End file.
